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Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker—and now Junior Brown? The former community college teacher is the latest outlaw to hijack Texas country music, and he may be the greatest.
Storytelling and reviews about the artists and trends that define the sounds of the Lone Star State
Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker—and now Junior Brown? The former community college teacher is the latest outlaw to hijack Texas country music, and he may be the greatest.
Oak Cliff native Roy Hargrove may not have the depth and seasoning of Wynton Marsalis, but the 26-year-old prodigy could still be one of the great jazz trumpeters of our day.
Hot CDsAustin immigrant Bob Mould made two solo records after the breakup of his first band, Hüsker Dü; now the demise of his latest band, Sugar, has led to a third. Self-produced, entirely self-played, and unassumingly self-titled, the Rykodisc release finds Mould’s somber vocals and crystalline guitar lines meandering from
When the double life of pioneering record producer Huey Meaux was exposed, it was time to face the music: How well did I really know the legend I once called my friend?
summary: From Nanci Griffith to Butch Hancock, the stars will shine at this year’s Kerrville Folk Festival—the kickoff of a year-long twenty-fifth-anniversary celebration. Plus: Dead presidents in Austin, Spanish masterpieces in Dallas, a haunting opera in Houston, and tee time in Fort Worth. Edited by Quita McMath, Erin Gromen, and
Steve Earle feels alright.
Beloved by bubbas and the Butthole Surfers alike, 350-pound yodeler Don Walser is country’s current cross-generational king of cool.
Austin singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin is at Cedar Creek studios this month completing a new album, to be released by Columbia Records as early as this summer. Some songs will be produced by John Leventhal, who did Colvin’s Steady On, and others by Malcolm Burn, who has worked with the Neville
The best books and CDs from Texas.
I had my first dancing lesson in Amarillo with Constance Ferguson. Constance had been out in California studying ballet with Theodore Kosloff, one of Pavlova’s partners, but she came back to Amarillo and wanted to open a dancing school. Up on the very top floor of a great old hotel
The best books and CDs from Texas.
Two mythic cultures, one great love affair: How France has taken us to heart.
The best books and CDs from Texas.
Willie Nelson may not be a radio staple anymore, but a new tribute album recorded by some of rock’s coolest stars shows that his music is still moving to them.
Abra Moore likes herself, a revelation that comes as she grooves to the music piping through an Austin cafe. It sounds good to her—the singer knowing and ethereal, the sound a jazzy, ruminative folk-pop with a fragile ache. But wait: It’s the sound of her own recent solo debut, Sing
Forget Buddy Holly? That’ll be the day. Plus: Boone Pickens’ hellish fight, Norma McCorvey’s heavenly conversion.
The verdict is in, but a complete account of what went on in the Selena murder trial hasn’t come out—until now.
Computer-aided choreography, professional composers to score the music, mammoth budgets: At high schools and colleges across Texas these days, marking bands are playing for keeps.
Lisa Loeb eyes stardom.
Two decades after he played the role of his life in ‘The Buddy Holly Story,’ Gary Busey’s hero worship has made him his own worst enemy.
Freddy Fender has one of the most affecting voices in the music business. So why isn’t he a star?
The music man.
A veteran filmmaker’s new documentary looks at the rich history of tejano.
Jimmy LaFave’s great new CD might propel him from Austin to the big time—if that were what he wanted.
San Antonio accordionist Mingo Saldivar is knocking them dead in northern Mexico.
Each week, record promoters flock to see Redbeard, the Dallas radio programmer with an ear for the best new music.
Never mind the bullocks, here’s Sincola: An Austin band tries to live up to the hype.
Shawn Colvin, the latest pop émigré to land in Austin, sets the record straight on her long and difficult road to stardom.
When country hunk Billy Ray Cyrus his megahit “Achy Breaky Heart” in 1992, country dancing—or at least a modern version of it—returned to vogue. Cyrus’ novelty song was released with a video that showed a line dance specifically created for the song, and—in a flashback to the Urban Cowboy craze of
For twenty seasons Austin City Limits has been the elite soundstage of American popular music. And it keeps getting better.
Bugs Henderson doesn’t lhave an “act” — he’s simply one of the best blues guitarists around.
An Austin arts group is exposing the roots of Texas music to a younger audience.
Diverse styles and a shared devotion to fold music mark new releases by Nanci Griffith and Robert Earl Keen.
The troubled imagination that fuels Daniel Johnston's powerful new album could also prove his undoing.
The sound of assimilation.
The family that plays together stays together. Meet one of the world’s most successful classical music clans.
Some of the brightest country music stars—like Mark Chesnutt and Tracy Byrd—are born in the honky-tonks of Beaumont.
The survivor of a long and torturous journey, George Jones stands alone as the greatest country singer alive.
In Houston a handful of juke joints and beer bars offers blues the way they used to be—a soulful, gritty communal rite.
Can tejano heartthrob Emilio Navaira survive the crossover to country music?
When Stevie Ray Vaughan died, Texas lost its premier guitarist. Can any of these ambitious young players fill his boots?
Once, country acts made art in Austin and money in Nashville. Today each place is a lot like the other, which is why more Texas singers are heading east.
Twenty years later, Jerry Jeff Walker returns to the town his music put on the map.
When top black country artists like powerhouse singer Mary Cutrufello take the stage, people listen.
A new album showcases the smoky vocals and guitar of Long John Hunter—the man who gave West Texas the blues.
After ten low-key years, country singer turned mystery novelist Kinky Friedman is once again poised to hit the big time.
In his new release, Jimmie Dale Gilmore sings country music the way it’s supposed to be sung—pure and easy.
Carnality, Castration Anxiety, and Jouissance in Willie Nelson’s Taco Bell Commercial.
In Texas, singer Calvin Russell can barely fill a club. In France, he’s more popular than Willie—and sells more records.